Process Analyst

Northwestern Mutual; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 98,000 - 147,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work schedules

Concierge service

Comprehensive benefits

Employee resource groups

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual seeks a quantitative business analyst to understand, document, and improve its investment transaction lifecycle across sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio monitoring. You will map processes, identify bottlenecks, and champion AI-enabled workflows while coordinating with front office stakeholders.

You will design scalable analytics solutions, build dashboards in Power BI, and ensure data quality in Snowflake/dbt environments to inform senior leadership decisions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a quantitative field or equivalent.
• 2+ years in analytics or investment-focused business analysis.
• Experience improving processes in investment management/front office.
• Proven ability to identify inefficiencies and deliver improvements.
• Strong data-driven decision making and communication.

Responsibilities

• Map and document end-to-end front office processes across deal sourcing to investment decision-making.
• Identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks; propose AI-enabled workflows.
• Build Power BI dashboards for portfolio management and leadership.
• Configure eFront and assist users with best practices.
• Document methodologies, data standards, and repeatable processes.

Skills

Attention to Detail

Adaptive Communication

Financial Market Monitoring

Risk Evaluation

Industry Knowledge

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance/Economics/Statistics/Data Science/CS/Financial Engineering

Tools

Snowflake

Python

dbt

PowerBI

Job description

About The Job

• This role will focus on understanding, documenting, and improving processes with NMC’s investment transaction lifecycle; including deal sourcing, due diligence, valuation, portfolio monitoring, and portfolio performance.
• Map and document end-to-end front office processes across deal sourcing, underwriting, portfolio monitoring, and investment decision-making to establish a clear baseline of current-state workflows, handoffs, and pain points.
• Conduct structured assessments of deal team to identify inefficiencies, manual bottlenecks, redundant steps, gaps in data flow or system utilization, and room for introduction of AI enabled workflows and tools.
• Develop and prioritize process improvement plans with clearly defined objectives, milestones, resource requirements, and expected business impact, partnering with front office stakeholders to drive adoption.
• Evaluate current technology utilization across front office systems (e.g., eFront, Snowflake, Power BI) and recommend configuration changes, automation opportunities, or workflow redesigns to increase efficiency and reduce operational risk.
• Serve as a change agent by championing process discipline, standard operating procedures, and best practices across the front office.
• Identify, define, and refine key investment metrics and analytical views that inform investment decisions and support positive business outcomes.
• Build and maintain Power BI dashboards that combine quantitative outputs and visual storytelling to support portfolio management and senior leadership.
• Configure eFront and assist users with troubleshooting and best practices.
• Contribute to the design and maintenance of AI‑ready datasets by optimizing and enhancing datasets for consumption by investment professionals.
• Clearly document analytical methodologies, assumptions, data standards, and repeatable processes.

What You'll Bring To The Role

• Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science, Financial Engineering, or a related quantitative field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Two or more years of experience in quantitative, analytics, or investment focused business analyst role.
• Demonstrated experience analyzing and improving business processes within an investment management, asset management, or financial services front office environment.
• Track record of identifying operational inefficiencies and delivering measurable process improvements.
• Strong data‑driven decision‑making mindset with comfort working in ambiguous, unstructured problem spaces.
• Process‑oriented approach with the ability to design scalable, repeatable analytical solutions.
• Strong communication and influence skills, with the ability to present findings, recommendations, and improvement roadmaps to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership.
• Experience with change management principles and the ability to guide teams through process transitions with minimal disruption.
• Intellectual curiosity and willingness to challenge assumptions, methodologies, and existing analytical approaches.
• High attention to detail and a strong instinct to reconcile, validate, and pressure‑test data and results.
• Experience with Snowflake, Python, dbt, and PowerBI preferred.
• Proficiency in process mapping and documentation tools to create clear, shareable representations of current-state and future-state workflows.
• Ability to apply structured process improvement methodologies to diagnose root causes and design scalable solutions.
• Strong facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills to lead discovery sessions, gather requirements, and drive alignment across investment professionals, operations, and technology teams.
• Ability to build cases for process improvements, quantifying effort, risk, and expected ROI to support prioritization and leadership decision-making.
• Proficiency in Power BI, including data modeling and integrating quantitative outputs into dashboards.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, including modeling and validation of analytical results.
• Proficiency in Snowflake and dbt to query and build datasets.
• Ability to interpret, scrub, process, and clearly explain complex quantitative results to non‑technical stakeholders.

Skills You Will Have

• Adaptive Communication: Formulates strategies to be used to convey complex information about services, products, systems, or processes to targeted audiences; communicates and liaises between technical and non-technical audiences.
• Attention to Detail: Focuses on specific details to spot and correct errors in advance of them being found and surpass quality expectations. Performs work with thorough proofreading for presentation, content, accuracy, and overall quality.
• Financial Market Monitoring: Consistently tracks and analyzes financial market data and news, evaluates trends and events that may impact investment portfolios or financial decisions, and makes informed decisions based on this information. Stays up to date on economic indicators, market news, and global events, and understands how they relate to investment opportunities and risks.
• Industry Knowledge: Demonstrates extensive knowledge of common practices, regulatory considerations, market trends and the competitive landscape within a particular industry / sector to better understand and address unique client requirements, challenges, and context.
• Risk Evaluation: Assesses the significance of identified risks, makes judgments about the significance of the risk in relation to the organization's objectives and assesses whether the risk is acceptable or not. Considers factors such as the organization's risk appetite, risk tolerance, and risk management resources to help decision-makers determine which risks require further action and which can be accepted or tolerated.

Compensation Range

Pay Range - Start: $89,360.00

Pay Range - End: $134,040.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure: $98,320.00 USD - $147,480.00 USD

Structure 115: $102,800.00 USD - $154,200.00 USD

Skills

• Attention to Detail (NM)
• Adaptive Communication (NM)
• Financial Market Monitoring (NM)
• Risk Evaluation (NM)
• Industry Knowledge (NM)

FIND YOUR FUTURE

We’re excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.

• Flexible work schedules
• Concierge service
• Comprehensive benefits
• Employee resource groups

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.